In the Bible, a group of men carry their paralyzed friend on a mat to see Jesus, in hopes that Jesus will heal him. Instead of saying, "Stand up and walk," as everyone expects, Jesus responds, "Thy sins are forgiven," and the man is restored.

For some of us, a sense of our inadequacies and mistakes--whether real, exaggerated, or imagined--burdens us, paralyzes us mentally and physically. Feel the power of Love releasing you, right now, with the power of the words, "Thy sins are forgiven." Accept this. This promise and blessing frees us to move with more freedom, intuition, lightness, and effectiveness in the service of Love.

Today, don't burden yourself with believing you, personally, are responsible for solving all the world's problems. Trust Love more. Trust other people's capacities more. Be faithful to the responsibilities that have been entrusted to you, with less anxiety about the results. Mother Teresa says, "We are not called to be successful, but to be faithful." Father Gregory Doyle writes, "If you surrender your need for results and outcomes, success becomes God's business." Be steady and attentive to your own duties and relationships, and let go.

God really, really, really loves you. Remember that feeling when you found out the person you had a crush on also liked you, or that new person also wanted to be your friend, or you got the job or the award and couldn't quite believe it--couldn't quite believe you were worthy of it, that you were chosen? You are chosen. You are seen. Every molecule of your being is cherished. Open yourself to accepting this gift. This truth.

Gregory Boyle is a Catholic priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, who has devoted his life to working with gang members. In his book Tattoos on the Heart, he writes:

"Choose to become what child psychiatrist Alice Miller calls 'enlightened witnesses' - people who through their kindness, tenderness, and focused, attentive love return folks to themselves - it's a return, not a measuring up . . . We don't hold the bar up and ask people to measure up to it. One simply shows up and commits to telling the truth.

At Homeboy Industries, we seek to tell each person this truth: they are exactly what God had in mind when God made them--and then we watch, from this privileged place, as people inhabit this truth. Nothing is the same again. No bullet can pierce that, no prison walls can keep this out. And death can't touch it - it is just that huge."

Today, know that Love is your perfect teacher: guiding, guarding, challenging, comforting, revealing, with always your best interest in mind. Today, know that Love is other people's perfect teacher, communicating directly to them, with personalized language and lessons so that they may hear and understand. Trust more in Love's active teaching.

Today, know that your effectiveness and success is not achieved through your best human efforts - but though the degree that you open and let Love's powerful, peaceful, effective energy move through you. Sometimes this will require that you increase your time and focus on a goal; often, it will requiring doing what you do with more trust and ease.

Some of us have a strong desire to understand: everything. Today, know that you don't have to understand before you feel Love's love. You don't have to understand the sources of your own suffering or the causes and solutions for the world's great sorrows. It's not wrong to question and explore and try to comprehend and hope to implement wise solutions, but we don't need to begin there. We don't have to have our questions answered or mysteries solved before we feel and accept Love's embrace of us. Today, pause to feel Love loving you. Let your seeking-after-answers soften. In fact, understanding often comes, gently and effectively, when we are resting in Love.

No matter what the challenge (whether it seems internal or external, personal or institutional), the solution begins in the same place: begin by claiming that you are Love's beloved and do your humble best to accept it. Feel it. This is your most important job - the foundation on which wise thought and action will build.

There is nothing hidden in you that is not subject to Love's light and comfort: no hidden sorrow, no overburdened sense of responsibility, no grief, no belief that holds you back. Love touches every part of you with unconditional acceptance, with the light of truth, with understanding. You are known.